Railroad-switch



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. CHRISTIAN-SEN.

RAILROAD SWITCH- No. 465,791. v Patented Dec. 22, 1891,.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN CIIRISTIANSEN, OF QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS.

RAILROAD-SWITCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 465,791,da.ted December22, 1891.

' Application filed March 26,1891- Serial No. 386,545. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN GHRIs'rIANsEN, a citizen of theUnited States,residing atQuincy, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts,have invented new and useful Improvements in Railroad-Switches, of whichthe following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in railroad-switches, and inparticular in that class of switches in which the switch-rails aremovable vertically instead of sidewise,'and which are described inPatents No. 330,878, dated November 24, 1885; N 0. 405,020, dated June11,1889, and No. 433,934, dated August 12, 1890, granted to JohnA.Duggan,of Quincy, Massachusetts; and the objects of my'improvementsare, first, to lessen or entirely obviate the liability of clogging bysnow or ice packing under the switch-rail or between the switch-rail andthe underlying tie, making theswitch inoperative; second, to make theswitch safer and more permanent by the use of two or more metallic tiesin the place of wooden ones; third, to prevent the spreading or movingof rails at the point of danger in the switch by the use of metallicties with rail-chairs fastened permanently to same; fourth, making theswitch self-locking after throwing it into either one or the otherposition by means of a crank having a square face, increasing therebythe safety of the switch; fifth, providing for a thoroughinterchangeability of parts with the least possible expense in materialas well as in labor. I attain these objects by the mechanism illustratedin accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a plan view of a switch;Fig. 2, asectional elevation, guard-rail E removed, showingswitclnrailsA and B; Fig. 3, a crosssection on line 10 11' of Fig. 1,looking to the left. Fig. 4 is a cross-section on line 10 11 of Fig. 1,in an enlarged scale, looking toward the right; Fig. 5, a detail ofswitch-rail showing square-faced crank holding it in position; Figs. 6and 7, end views and details of boxhangers for suspending the crankshaftfrom the rails; Fig. 8, a cross-section of switch, showing constructionof rail-chairs for wooden ties; Fig. 9, an end view of chair and woodentie.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In Fig. l, C C and c c are the main track rails in a railroad; D D, thesiding; E E, the guard-rails; A A and B B, the switch-rails. These areshown also in Fig. 2,and switchrail A is shown in Fig. 5.

Experience has demonstrated that switches of the kind shown, if placedon wooden ties, are liable, under certain conditions of snow and frost,to be interfered with by the: snow while drifting, packing in betweenthe switchrail and the underlying tie. The places where the snow isliable to be packed hard by the repeated vertical movements of theswitchrails are difficult of access and cannot easily be cleaned. Toavoid such occurrence I use two ormore metallic ties G G, (shown inFigs. 1, 2, and 3,) formed of rolled angle-iron, the inclosed anglefilled with wood to facilitate tamping, the angle-iron being placedinverted upon the ground, as shown in Fig. 2, so as to present a sharpridge or edge upward, meeting the switch-rails A A and B B, which latterI also provide with asharpened or beveled edge at their bottom, at suchplaces as in their descent meet the underlying railroadties, or they maybe sharpened and beveled throughout their whole length. Figs. 2, 3, and5 show this sharpening or beveling at p and g. In this wise two sharpand cutting edges meet each other at right angles and make any packingof snow impossible.

The metallic ties G G are provided with chairs H 11, (shown in Figs; and3,) riveted on permanently, and to these the rails are secured by meansof shoes or brackets I I, making thus a very substantial and permanentfastening, preventing any lateral movement of the rails, keeping thesame at all times to the proper gage.

The switch-rails are operated by a rotating crank-axle. Heretofore thiscrank-axle has had its bearing or journals in boxes formed in the chairswhich support the rails; also, it has been made of one piece of forgedwroughtiron, the cranks at each end engaging in an elongated eye formedat the bottom of the switch-rails. I find in the practical constructionand operation of the switch that this construction is open toobjections. First, the roughness of that class of castings to whichrail-chairs belong makes it difficult and expensive to provide a bearingfor the crank- ICO shaft in the proper and exact location re-' quired,and to retain such bearing in the spiking of said chairs to roughrailroad-ties, and to prevent binding of the shaftin the bearings. Isuspend my crank-shaft from the rails, as shown in Fig. 4, by means ofU-shaped bolts with cast boxes, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, the solid boxm being hung to the Outside or bearing rail, whereas the open or slottedbox 01 is hung to the inside or guard rail. I also construct mycrank-shaft in three pieces, making the two cranks e and b separately,and of caststeel,joining them byapiece of common square wrought-iron,corresponding in size to square ends formed upon the cranks, and bymeans of clamps or couplings ff. (See Fig. 4, also Fig. 1.) The purposeof this construction now is as follows: The hangers and boxes 0 o, m,and a may be permanently bolted to the rail-flanges, and in mounting andplacing a switch in the track the cranks are separately placed in theirrespective and proper positions by shoving them in through the slot inbox a, after which the wrought-iron bar d is placed between them andsecured to them by the clamps f f. The switch-rails A and A are then, bymeans of their fork-shaped open slot Z, Fig. 5, placed in position andthe bolts u u inserted and tightened. A removal and replacement of thecranks, which may be necessitated by derailment of cars,bending thesame, or for other reasons, is effected in the same manner and with theleast possible expenditure of time, whereas, if the crank-shaft weremade in one piece itwould not only be more expensive in manufacture, butit would be difficult to place it in position, and still more so toremove it when bent or disabled by accident. I

It will be seen in Figs. 2 and 5 that I construct my crank with a squareouter face instead of making it round, as cranks usually and universallyare. This I do for the purpose of making the switch self-locking, andthis purpose is accomplished perfectly, for in operating the switch itby reason of negligence or imperfections in any of the moving parts ofthe switch-stand or switch-rod connections the crank should be thrownshort of its perpendicular position or beyond the same, then as soon asa load is brought to bear upon the switch-rail it will have the tendencyto move the crank into its proper perpendicular position and to keep itthere, and while the load is moving over the switch no ordinary powerapplied to the crank would be able to throw or move it, whereas if thecrank were made round and were not placed absolutely perpendicular, thenwith the load of a driving-wheel upon the switch-rail a tremendoustorsional strain would be caused upon the crank-shaft and itsconnections to the switch-stand and upon the lock in the switch-stand.As the crank-shaft lies below the natural surface of the groundaso-called round-switch attached to a linear extension of thecrank-shaft would also-be below the surface of the ground, which wouldbe objectionable, snow covering it in winter and switchmen having tostoop very low to operate it. I therefore raise myswitch-stand to anydesirable height above the ground.

Fig. 4 shows the switch-rod Z from any switch-stand.

g, i, and h constitute a universal oint, forming the connection betweenthe crank-shaft and the switch-rod Z. This arrangement enables me tooperatemy crank-shaft from any point above as well as also sidewise ofthe crank-shaft so long as the switch-rod Z forms an angle with thelinear extension of the I crank-shaft of less than ninety degrees, atwhich angle a universal joint becomes inoperative.

As the application of .metallic ties enhances the cost of the switch,and as wooden ties will be employed to a large extent, I show in Fig. 8a switch placed on wooden ties G. The beveled edge at the bottom of theswitchrails A A will yet, to a great extent, prevent the packing of snowbetween the tie and the rail.

In constructing a switch for wooden ties I find it necessary to employ ayoke P, (shown in Figs. 8 and 9,) which is bolted onto each of thechairs II II. I' find namely that in connecting the various rails andtightening the bolts a a 'u, at the joints shown in Fig. 1 the pointwhere the two switch-rails A and B meet is very sensitive, and thatunless the filling-blocks s, o, and t are exceedingly accurately fittedthere will be either a spreading of the rails D and E at that point or acontraction of same, causing either too loose a fit of the switch-railin the slot formed by the track-rail D and the block a bolted onto theguard-rail E, or a binding of the switchrail in'the slot preventing orimpeding its free vertical movement. This may be further aggravated bythe rough process of spiking the chairs II II to rough wooden ties. Theyoke P now guards against all this and insures an accurate and properfit under all circumstances. The yoke is made of heavy wrought-iron,bolted withstrongbolts, which are in line with the rails, and therebeing two bolts in each chair a tipping on account of roughness of tiesis made impossible.

W'hatlclaimas my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A vertically-moving switch-rail having its bottom edge beveled toform a sharp cutting-edge, substantially as and for the purposespecified.

2. In a vertically-moving switch-rail, an open forked slot Z at thebottom for withdrawing the rail or placing it in position withoutremoving the crank-shaft, substantially as set forth. I 1

3. The combination of a railroad-switch the metallic tics G, composed ofinverted angle-irons presenting their sharp ridge upward, substantiallyas above described.

4. Ina switch of the kind described, the combination of avertically-moving switchrail having a sharpened or cutting bottom edge,with metallic ties presenting a sharp two separate cranks andanintervening straight bar coupled to the cranks by clamps or couplings,with hangers suspending said crank-shaft from the flanges of the mainand guard rails, the boxes in hangers suspended from the guard-railsbeing slotted or open to admit of the passage of the cranks,substantially as described.

8. In a switch of thekind described, a crank for operating theswitch-rails having a square outer face, substantially as shown, and forthe purpose described.

9. In a switch of the kind described, a crankshaft coupled to theswitch-rod of a switchstand bymeans of a universal joint, substantiallyas described.

10. In a switch of the kind described, the combination of a crank-shaftand a switchrod leading off from said crank shaft to any switch-standunder an angle upward and sidewise, with a universal joint 9 i h,substantially as described.

11. In a switch of the kind described, the combination of therail-chairs H II with a yoke P, substantially as set forth.

JOHN OIIRISTIANSEN.

\Vitnesses:

GEORGE L. GILL, HATTIE L. BURRELL.

